Aida Maria 8 day Eastern Islands

Duration: 8 days

from A$3886

The Aida Maria is a 66 feet, tourist superior class motor yacht accommodating a maximum of 16 people in 8 double cabins. She offers good accommodation, service, food, private bathrooms, air conditioning and an experienced naturalist guide for your Galapagos Islands wildlife adventure cruise. This 8 day itinerary takes in many of the highlights of the Galapagos Islands with many opportunities to interact with its amazing wildlife

Day 1: Baltra - Las Bachas Beach

Fly from the Ecuadorian mainland to the islands on an early morning
90-minute flight. As you prepare to land in Baltra, look out the window.
The landscape below will seem out of this world. The Galapagos Islands
are completely unique and you’re about to see why. After you clear
customs, your bilingual naturalist guide will greet you at the airport.
During lunch he/she will introduce you to the islands, specifically the
flora and fauna.

On the sandy white beaches of Las Bachas, you will get a close look
at a sea turtle nesting area as well as a lake frequented by pink
flamingos and other migratory birds. Afterwards, you will cool off with a
dip in the beautiful, blue Pacific Ocean. As this is the first evening
together, the crew will invite everyone to a pre-dinner cocktail on the
yacht before the welcome dinner. If the night is clear, as it usually
is, the stars above will sparkle; look for the Southern Cross, the Big
Dipper (turned up-side down!) and Orion.

Lunch & dinner included.

Day 2: Darwin Bay - El Barranco

After breakfast, visit the Genovesa “Tower” Island, which
is located in the northeastern part of the Galapagos. At “Tower” Island, you’ll anchor at Darwin Bay, which is located on the
southern part of the island, and is actually the caldera of an extinct,
partially eroded volcano, with the surrounding cliffs forming the inner
lining of the rim. The
tour will be a long, fairly-easy walk, but it is usually hot and dry
here, so you may want to carry some water. After a wet landing on a
coral beach the trail begins in an area where there are several
swallow-tailed gulls. As you walk back from the beach, you’ll see a
variety of Opuntia cactus and mangroves.

In the afternoon, you will visit El Barranco before returning to the boat for dinner.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner included.

Day 3: Bartolome Island - Sullivan Bay

Bartolome
Island, which at its highest point is 114 meters, is one of the most
photographed vistas in the archipelago. This island is quite young and
quite volcanic, therefore, it's relatively unpopulated; only a small
handful of die-hard plant and animal species have survived long enough
to call this lava-land home.

After the visit to Bartolome Island, you’ll visit nearby Sullivan Bay. At the turn of the century a huge lava flow spilled right down to the
sea and today you can stroll across this black volcanic expanse,
admiring its time-frozen ripples, bubbles and ropes.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner included.

Day 4: Daphne Island - Black Turtle Cove - Cerro Dragon

Early in the morning, you’ll
arrive to Daphne Island, a cone formed by the accumulation of volcanic
ash, which is home to thousands of birds such as blue footed boobies,
frigate birds, tropic birds, and many more. We wont go ashore here, but
we’ll navigate around this volcanic cone, so binoculars are recommended
to get a good look at the birds. Daphne has been a great research site
on which many scientists have spent years studying the behavior of
Darwin’s finches.

Later, you’ll move on to our next site, Black Turtle Cove,
which is a red mangrove lagoon on Santa Cruz and is a nursery for many
sharks and rays. It’s also a great location to observe mating turtles
around this time of year. You’ll see large groups of resting White-Tip
Reef Sharks, schools of Golden Rays and Spotted Eagle Rays, and a few
juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks and Black-Tip Sharks. The water
very calm so we often used paddles instead of the loud panga engines to
move around the area.

After lunch, you’ll navigate for a couple of hours to Cerro Dragon, where
you’ll make a dry landing on lava rocks. Cerro Dragon is a small bay on
the west coast of Santa Cruz and got its name from the many land
iguanas that live in the area. Land iguanas are endemic to the Galapagos
Islands where they have found good mating and nesting areas.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner included.

Day 5: Charles Darwin Research Station - Puerto Ayora

After breakfast you’ll sail to Santa Cruz Island, where you’ll visit the
world-famous Charles Darwin Station, a non-profit institution that
dedicates itself to studying and protecting the flora and fauna of the
Galapagos. This is one of the best places to see land tortoises,
including Lonesome George, the last survivor of his subspecies.

Aside from the Station headquarters, Santa Cruz Island is home to the
largest town and economic center of the Galapagos, Puerto Ayora. In this
port-side town you can buy souvenirs (postcards, t-shirts, books, etc.)
of the islands. After lunch, you will explore the upper region of the
island and learn about the vegetation and animal life of the area.
Return to town in the late afternoon and check out its night life while
the boat is docked for most of this night.

Your first stop is Punta Cormorant, where you’ll follow a footpath
to a lagoon inhabited by flaming-pink flamingos. You will also pass by
Carolina Beach, a Sea Turtle nesting area and a superb spot for watching
sea birds and sea rays.

Back on the yacht, you’ll skirt the island’s coast until you arrive at
La Corona del Diablo (the Devil’s Crown), a sub-marine crater that
offers some of the most spectacular snorkeling in the Galapagos. This is
a great spot for seeing the wide array of tropical fish, many endemic
to the islands, including purple sea stars and spiky sea urchins. The
crater’s most thrilling undersea creatures, however, are the
white-tipped sharks.

After returning to the boat for lunch you’ll sail on to Post Office
Bay, where the islands’ original post office (really only a wooden
barrel) was established in 1793. The current system still functions as
it did three centuries ago: Visitors drop off unstamped letters and
postcards and pick-up whatever mail they can hand deliver themselves
when they return home!

Breakfast, lunch & dinner included.

Day 7: Suarez Point & Gardner Bay, Espanola Island

Espanola
is one of the most magical of all the islands. It is a place where the
animals reign supreme and we humans are merely guests. As your dingy
brings you to shore you’ll see Sea Lion pups sunbathing with Marine
Iguanas and Blue Footed Boobies nesting in between, nearby may be a
Galapagos Hawk, Frigate Bird and Waved Albatross.

As you make your way around the island, you will
pass by El Soplador, a giant blowhole that explodes to heights reaching
25 feet. In the nearby tide pools you can often find lounging sea lions
enjoying the blowhole’s misty spray.

In the late afternoon, you will visit Gardner Bay, a great place
for sunbathing, swimming and snorkelling. Lionfish, Flycatchers, and
Galapagos Hawks will keep you company as you relax under the rays of the
evening sun.

Breakfast, lunch & dinner included.

Day 8: Lobos Island - Depart San Crisobal Airport

After breakfast, you will visit Lobos Island, a
very small islet made of volcanic rocks that gets its name from the
colony of Sea Lions that live there. Here you can observe the behavior
and interaction of Sea Lions living in a small community.

Before taking the flight back to the mainland you
will have some time to visit the town on your own for last minute
shopping or people watching in the Galapagos. You will then be
transferred to San Cristobal Airport for your outbound flight home.

Breakfast & lunch included.

Departs - Fortnightly (Sundays)

M/Y Aida Maria Cabins

8
comfortable double cabins located on 3 decks, 4 on Main deck, 2 on the
upper deck and 2 on the sun deck. Each cabin has upper and lower beds,
private bathroom with hot showers ,

All cabins
have the same price and are assigned on first come first serve basis,so
if you want the upper deck cabins please request this.